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CIA-Backed Surveillance Tool 'Geofeedia' Was Marketed To Public Schools (dailydot.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Daily Dot: An online surveillance tool that enabled hundreds of U.S. law enforcement agencies to track and collect information on social media users was also marketed for use in American public schools, the Daily Dot has learned. Geofeedia sold surveillance software typically bought by police to a high school in a northern Chicago suburb, less than 50 miles from where the company was founded in 2011. An Illinois school official confirmed the purchase of the software by phone on Monday. In the fall of 2014, the Lincolnshire-Prairie School District paid Geofeedia $10,000 to monitor the social media posts of children at Adlai E. Stevenson High School. "We did have for one year a contract with Geofeedia," said Jim Conrey, a spokesperson for Lincolnshire-Prairie School District. "We were mostly interested in the possibility of trying to prevent any kind of harm, either that students would do to themselves or to other students." Conrey said the district simply wanted to keep its students safe. "It was really just about student safety; if we could try to head off any potential dangerous situations, we thought it might be worth it," he said. Ultimately, the school found little use for the platform, which was operated by police liaison stationed on school grounds, and chose not to renew its subscription after the first year, citing cost and a lack of actionable information. "A lot of kids that were posting stuff that we most wanted, they weren't doing the geo-tagging or making it public," Conrey said. "We weren't really seeing a lot there." The school's experience, added Conrey, was that more often than not students would approach school administrators with sensitive issues, as opposed to the school unearthing problems affecting students using Geofeedia. "Quite frankly, we found that it wasn't worth the money," Conrey said.
When I saw "CIA-Backed Surveillance Tool" I was convinced it was referencing Evan McMullin!
And there is no broad picture to take away from this?
Such as, if prepubescent school kids (not the mist shining example of intellectual prowess) are not a good target for this tool, how would it be effective against domestic terror agents, or even foreign terror agents?
They imply it only collects the public data available-- not the private data. It is therefore only useful as a tool to make associations with, and make inferences, using otherwise beniegn data points.
Unless the school has an interest in being the thought police, or trying to make Joe McCarthy's ghost blush, it is no wonder they did not find it useful.
Given thus finding, what does this say about the CIA's goals?
A covert surveillance tool monitoring your nations children operated by police liaison stationed on school grounds.
For their own safety of course. (Well "mostly" for their safety. No mention of what the other motivations might be).
This isn't a slippery slope. This is halfway down the mountain heading for a cliff sliding at full speed.
Why is Facebook not keeping private the account of kids so that only their friends can see their posts?
That's the takeaway. The school is looking now, but it could be a bad guy, a divorced parent barred from access to their kids, a bully, any number of bad scenarios.
Do you really want kids childhood history there for future employers to see?
They should have privacy and not just from this particular company!
This must save a lot time. No more asking kids "Who is your daddy and what does he do"?
They were thinking about the children.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
They did implement a full court-yard and corridor video and audio surveillance before this step, didn't they? It's to protect the children from bullying, reduce the insurance payments and liability, of course. Social media monitoring is the next, logical step from the all seeing eye. Maybe schools should be redesigned to support this monitoring activity, with a central control room of sorts at the center and the class rooms all around it, glass walls and all. We could name it, say, Panopticon. Ah yes, it sounds so British!
Isn't that Hitler's line?
Just trying to keep your kids safe against the jews/terrorists/funny-looking people
Damned scum.
I assume the conclusion the school made applies to the government as well. People probably already report a lot of stuff to the police and no secret systems are needed that spy on us. The problem is that the information that people provide to the correct instances is probably not processed properly and mostly gone to waste.
You hear it all the time, purpetrator was known by the police, people reported x & y to authorities, sometimes even between internal divisions of the communication is not getting through.
Maybe they should improve this, they would gain more then they probably realise.
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
Wow. The CIA found some fast friends in this concentration camp:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevenson_High_School_(Lincolnshire,_Illinois)#Controversies_and_Incidents/
You've probably used them.
"Keyhole" . . .which is now known as Google Earth
"Huddle", the collaboration software.
Some stuff, we never see, but others have useful commercial and private uses. It's not AUTOMATICALLY bad because the CIA thought it was nifty technology that could use some angel investing. . .
Well you could have given me half the money and I would have told you this before you bought the service.
That mother fucker.
This info was never for the student, teacher or school benefit as a whole. It's true purposes was political thought policing. Kind of obvious when you think about it. What is chilling, is that sp,e school voluntarily tried this out. Wonder of parents were asked for consent before putting the students on it....
"Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
...you have nothing to fear" rationale from the school and the software vendor. I get to monitor my kids' online activities. You do not. Stop it.
Why are so many public schools such hellholes that administrators feel they need to take such measures in the name of "student safety"? If the argument is that the problems in schools originate outside of the schools, then mightn't the schooling of previous generations bear at least some of the blame? And a related question - why do so many schools have cops on duty?
Might there be a fundamental flaw in public education - one that goes back to the inception of American public schools (pdf) and was based on an insufferable level of presumption that was explicitly stated at the time?
When you start to come to grips with the overwhelming evidence that public education was designed to extend immaturity, foster dependence and obedience, and ensure a qualified labour pool, then it's no surprise to find that school boards and the CIA might share common goals and methods.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
The children get spoon fed geography lessons? I think the CIA has a future recruitment angle here.
Adlai E. Stevenson High School? Quite a progressive program they have, indeed.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.